In the video above, meet Michelle DeLaune, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). With a career spanning two decades at NCMEC, she has held various leadership roles and is the first woman to lead the organization since its founding in 1984.

Michelle has played a vital role in expanding NCMEC's programmatic response to the evolving threats faced by children. Under her leadership, the organization has introduced new initiatives, including a child sex trafficking recovery-planning team and the Child Victim Identification Program, which has rescued thousands of children from sexually abusive situations. Throughout her work, Michelle has championed the inclusion of survivor-informed responses, elevating the voices of individuals with lived experiences to influence positive change in NCMEC programs.

As the organization prepared for its next phase of growth, Michelle and the team at NCMEC partnered with Orr Group in early 2023 to design and operationalize a fundraising strategy focused on integrating philanthropy into its overall systems for increased impact. We've since expanded our work together, serving as embedded partners to provide interim leadership and operational support that will drive NCMEC's life-saving work forward.

Michelle offers insights into the evolution of NCMEC's philanthropic approach, her leadership advice for fellow nonprofit executives, and the transformative impact of our partnership in our recent “Partner Perspectives” interview above.